[Real World]

The sun was shining brightly in the polluted afternoon sky above Kyoto City, Japan.

It was just another busy city day where the temperature outside rose due to the hot weather. Therefore, people prefer to stay indoors and do their work there where they can enjoy the blessing of their AC.

In a room within a certain house in such a city, an exquisitely advanced Capsule Pod was opened.

A young girl, completely naked... rose from inside the capsule and yawned as she stretched her body. Her natural silky black waist-length hair swayed around every time her body moves. In her left arm was a bracelet that makes "pi-pi-pi" sound, and a ribbon with a bell was tied in her left ankle.

Surely her petite body makes her be mistaken for a child around 10-12 years old, but her age is definitely higher than that. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to use the Capsule Pod due to age restrictions.

In this country state regulation, the Ministry of Education added that citizens under the age of 16 are prohibited from using Capsule Pods.

That is to say, this little girl's age was at least over 16 years old!

"Mmmhhh~ Today is a very nice day. Victory once more for Hecate!"

Yes, this loli is the one that controls Hecate in the VRMMO game called Ascension.

Her name is Yasaka Ruri, 18 years old. Currently studying at Kyoto Academy as a 3rd year senior high student.

"After that much battle, I feel hungry."

So Ruri said as she rubbed her belly.

Ignoring the fact that she wasn't wearing any clothes at all, Ruri went to the living room. The bell on her left ankle rang every time she took a step. There was no one except her in this house and the security system was very good, so she didn't have to worry about being seen naked by anyone.

When she arrived at the living room, she waved her hand and the dark room suddenly became bright.

It looks like magic, but this is technology.

Nowadays, it's very common to install gesture recognition system in the household. Like how the smartphones once boomed in its era where almost everyone on Earth used to have at least one.

With this system installed, you don't have to press the lamp switch manually to light the room. All you have to do is wave your hand into a certain movement pattern and the lamp will immediately light. The same also can be done within various household application, like turning on the AC or the TV.

Sitting on the sofa, Ruri waved her right hand and the small device in the wall let out a '*ding*' sound, and then it projected a virtual transparent screen (let's call it holo-screen afterwards) on the wall in front of Ruri with good enough distance to watch.

This is the "TV" of this era.

Small, light, detachable... Can be set in any place and did not take up much space!

She changed the channel with the wave of her finger.

Bzzt!

Satisfied with the channel she chose, Ruri relaxed her body and waved her hand again, but this time it was her left hand that was not registered in any of the gesture command.

Another screen suddenly appeared in front of her. It was a very familiar screen that she sees everyday.

The VRMMO game, Ascension Item Inventory Screen!

Ruri clicked one of the items in the entry. The items Ruri click instantly disappeared from the list and materializes directly in her palm.

This sandwich was made in the game by a player named Rena-cchi who has a Cooking subskill.

The taste was not bad, at least it was comparable to a burger from a fast food store. In addition, Rena-cchi herself is currently shaping her Cooking skill so her food become more delicious when eaten in the game.

It was distributed by Rena-cchi herself to the party before the raid battle. Although, the raid itself ultimately was wrecked by Hecate's treachery.

"I'm sorry, Rena... I did not have any grudge against you, but... Thank you for becoming my stepping stone."

Ruri ate the sandwich without any guilt in her expression. When someone pursues power, it can't be helped that many corpses would be stepped in order to make way.

Friendship? What's that? Is that delicious?

But the main question is, why is an item inside the game can be bought back to the reality?

As for this question, Ruri herself did not know the answer.

Things that should just be a bunch of data can actually be brought out into the real world and become real substance. For all she knew, she could do it the first time she played Ascension, and she continues to abuse this ability even now.

While savoring the taste of the sandwich, Ruri remembered how she met with this game.

♠♠♠

 

Two years ago, she was diagnosed with a severe case of leukemia, a terminal illness that is very hard to cure.

The Doctor said she won't last longer than five years. It supposedly can be cured with bone marrow transplant, but at that time her body was very weak. She might not survive the operation.

It was when suddenly her parents and relatives started to avoid her like the plague. Her parents just left her in the hospital by herself to do her chemotherapy alone while they occupy themselves at their workplace.

- It was as if their daughter was already dead and they did not want to see her corpse.

The young Ruri was hit hard emotionaly by their cold treatment.

Her supposedly loving parent was looking at her with a strange glance and left her by herself. Even during painful chemotherapy, none of her parents visited her. Although their family did not lack money to pay the hospital, they did not pay their daughter with love.

Ruri was deprived of affection and could only swallow her loneliness.

Then, she saw Ascension advertisement in the hospital TV. A virtual reality game where you can become anything you want. It gained very much popularity in the hospital, especially with patient with disabilities or missing limbs.

- In that world, anyone can become healthy!

She immediately requested her doctor to let her play this game. This requests forwarded to her parents and they agreed. Anyway, the Capsule Pod actually is not that expensive. That is, if they bought the basic one.

The one with just basic dive function costs ¥65.999, while the most advanced one with massage chair and proper nutritional liquid costs ¥11.999.999. But for Ruri, even the basic Capsule Pod is already good and she didn't ask for more.

Shortly after, the Capsule Pod arrived in her treatment room and she happily played with it. Ascension was already installed in the machine and ready to be played, so she didn't need to wait any further to dive.

Ruri quickly become immersed inside the world of Virtual Reality. Her body can be moved as she wish, it's as if the weak feeling she normally experienced was a lie. It did not take long time for her to fall in love with this world.

Unfortunately, there is a thing called Eight-hours login limit. As the name says, it is a mechanism to limit the player to login into the game more than 8 hours, and it resets after 4 hours of idle time. When this limit is exhausted, player will be forced to logout regardless of their will.

This mechanism supposedly created to prevent internet addiction, especially after few cases where many young people died because over-gaming too much without properly resting.

After 8 hours passed, Ruri could only unwillingly be forced back to the reality where her body is plagued by terminal illness.

Having felt the joy of having a healthy body, only to be forced returning to her sick body again, Ruri had never felt this depressed before as she was cruelly reminded once again that death was so close to her.

- The moment when her hope suddenly turned into despair... ／人◕‿‿◕人＼ 

She silently wept and lamented that fact in the middle of night where nobody around. But it was also at that time, her hand suddenly grabbed hold some kind of object out of nowhere.

It was the sword that every beginner in the game had, and also the sword that she had been using recently.

♠♠♠

 

Having completely eaten the sandwich, Ruri pulled out another item from the inventory.

This is a potion that can be bought in the Ascension cash shop, costs 200 each.

It was also the item which saved Ruri's life from her imminent death.

Gems ( ) is a premium currency which can only be obtained by trading it with Glory Points, and for easier method... purchase with real money. Gems purchase rate is fixed at   1 = ¥ 50. So, to buy  200, Ruri has to spend ¥ 10.000.

That price is kinda expensive for just a mere virtual item, especially for just one-time use consumable item. Only a tycoon dares to buy that. If it's just recovering HP, a Hi-Potion is already sufficient enough and unlike Elixir, it can be compounded by any player with Alchemy skills. 

Not only that, every consumable cash shop items have limitation purchase per day. This limit supposedly in order to restrict the rich so the game balance could be maintained. And this Elixir have harsh limit that players could only buy it once per day.

In other words, completely inefficient items to purchase.

But for Ruri, if the items can be bought back to reality and could cure any sickness, then ¥10.000 is a super bargain.

♠♠♠

 

The day when Ruri discover this ability, a spark of hope had been lit in her again.

Immediately 4 hours after the discovery, she dived once more to Ascension. However, she didn't purchase the item with Gems.

The main reason was, since she spent her days in a hospital bed, she didn't have any means to spend money, like snacks or something. Initially she did not need to receive allowance money. And for personal reasons, she was not willing to ask her parents.

Although that item were unpopular and inefficient, but in every MMO, there will be people that willing to spend real money to purchase cash items and sell it in the market, only to obtain in-game currency, Gold Coins.

Ruri PMed (Private Message) one of such player to ask how much Gold he is willing to trade with an Elixir. After asking the person himself, she came to understand by conversion rate that he willing to spent  200 to buy an Elixir and trades it with her  50.000.

And so, after struggling for 2 weeks, she was able to obtain the Elixir, pull it out to the real world and immediately drink it.

♠♠♠

 

Ruri chuckled as she glanced at the glass bottle in her hand.

"If I think about it once more... I was too rash back then, did I?"

Without confirming the elixir was drinkable or not, she just chug it down. That was the greatest gamble of her life.

What if this Elixir is undrinkable?
What if this Elixir is actually poison?

Such thoughts did not arise in the young Ruri's mind at that time. After all, death was so close in front of her that she might not care much even if that suspicion arose in her mind.

But in the end, she won that gamble!

Ruri opened the bottle and drank the Elixir. A unique taste instantly fills her mouth. It was not sweet, nor sour or bitter. Perhaps salty is close to the correct answer. In any case, it's definitely can't be said delicious. For the comparison, the taste was like drinking ICU liquid directly with your mouth.

If you think Elixir tastes like orange juice, then too bad. Drinking a Potion was never tastes good, both in the game or real-life. Even so, she keep drinking it until the last drop.

Wiping her mouth, Ruri murmured in a low voice.

"Disgusting..."

After dumping the bottle in the trash, Ruri continued to watch the TV while occasionally comforting herself by touching her bare pettan chest with her own finger. But a moment later, she felt bored and decided to stop.

*Pi Pi Pi*

Not long after, the bracelet in her left arm let out a notification sound. Ruri clicked one of the button and instantly a small holo-screen appeared. It was a mention notification from Nayaka Emi and Kashiwagi Rena in the chat group.

They are the person inside "Emilia" and "Rena-cchi" that Hecate just killed earlier.

Looking at the chat room, Ruri let out a glee smile. She knows from the conversation that her disguise is perfect. Nobody suspecting that Hecate is the mastermind behind of all this.

"Now what to do... I should think what to type..."

Ruri still intends to continue exploiting them in the future. For this means, the so called 'Friendship' must not be broken.

After thinking for a while, she activated the virtual keyboard and started typing.

Ruri closed the window and didn't look at the chat again.

She layed down on the sofa and enjoyed the soft feeling stroking her bare skin. Feeling somewhat sleepy, she used a voice command to the AI lazily.

"System command! Wake me up 30 minutes later."

Not long after, an inorganic voice responds to her words. This is the AI that is managing Ruri's house.

[Affirmative! Alarm will be set 30 minutes later in this room and will not stop until master are awake.]

With a wave of her hand, Ruri turned off the TV and then took a quick nap.